There's three things that happen with the scroll:
1. The person already knows about it - they upgrade it at the start of the game and get on the road, only a few seconds delayed.
2. The person is new to the game, but sees it, reads it, and upgrades it. By the time they finish, they're maybe 30-40 seconds delayed. They move to category one next game.
3. The person is new to the game, doesn't see it, doesn't listen when it's pointed out, and goes into to the endgame without ever realizing there's anything to be done with it. They may or may not have the concept of upgrading items explained to them by their teammates.
...
In my experience, most games are made entirely of people from categories 1 and 3. 2's are few and far between.
Yes, tempering is an important concept that people need to know about...
But so are:
-Obelisks
-Mercenaries
-Summoning to Bases (to move around the map)
-Spawn Towers
-Crystal
-Energy/Generators
-Battleplans
And these things don't have scrolls to explain them, yet somehow people figure them out, or else their teammates explain it to them. Generally, people who don't figure out the scroll don't figure out this stuff either.
My point is that I think that most* people who are able enough learners to benefit from the scroll are able enough learners to benefit from their teammates' instructions as well, and the scroll's rewards do more harm than good.
*obviously, the scroll is going to reach some people who wouldn't be reached otherwise.
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On the flip side, even if tower building is delayed, newbies still won't know about it.
Those that are able to grasp the concept will get it when their teammates explain it to them. If their teammates don't explain it to them, that's their team's fault. But the critical problem isn't that it fails to teach beginners about obelisks, the trouble is that there's a
free tower for each player that gets lost if the scroll doesn't get upgraded.
It's a per-player resource that never gets spent, and that's crippling. Perhaps even more so than a newbie who gets killed a lot. A beginner that doesn't spend their money on towers can still spend their money on other stuff. A beginner with a scroll isn't spending it on anything.